Over the last five years, since their rather inauspicious debut supporting Last Of The Light Brigade, the world’s finest (and possibly only) purveyors of self-styled ‘Grunge From The Vale’, Coastal Fire Dept, have been through something of a rotating cast of line ups centred on frontman and chief songwriter Ollie Goddard.

More recently though they have, comparatively, settled on a core line up of Goddard, bass player Saad Frihmat and drummer Gareth Thomas and have finally committed to tape (or hard drive) their debut ‘mini-album,’ Control.

After a wave of feedback we are dropped into the classic grunge, loud-quiet-loud style format as espoused by Pixies for You Make Me Feel Like Someone Else. By the band’s own admission the meaning of the song is open to interpretation but it firmly encapsulates something of the same angst of the best music that came out of the Pacific Northwest in the late 80s and early 90s while leaving room for the listener to find their own way in.

While structurally more of the same The Promise continues the feeling but with a darker sound while Goddard’s voice finds its most emotional moments in a way that is, at points, genuinely troubling to listen to.

Icarus brings us their take on the classic myth with an added heaviness before live favourite Ladykiller brings us one of the records highlights.

Given it’s a song about serial killer Ted Bundy and features samples of reports about him from the time Ladykiller brings a darker feel to proceedings with some deeply troubling lyrics but with that has a chorus that has an undeniable singalong feeling and the music feels perfect for getting a room jumping.

Here It Comes Again brings something different with a driving piano riff that helps the song as a whole drive it’s way into your brain in a manner that seems entirely fitting for the subject matter while also being another that should kick off a mosh in a live environment.

A nice fuzzy bass riff then begins Needy and, while the song may leave me wanting to say, ’Ok, Boomer,’ it’s another fine slab of angsty grunge rock that I could see getting into the heads of audiences whether in the way its intended or not wrapping up the mini-album on a potentially controversial but nonetheless musically enjoyable note.

Across the record Goddard demonstrates that he’s clearly a student of the style with obvious references to both the American sound of Pixies, Stone Temple Pilots and Nirvana and the more British and transatlantic version of Therapy?, Placebo and no doubt many others as well, but it’s more than an aping of their sounds as Coastal Fire Dept bring their own twist to the genre.

Being accustomed to hearing the band live the production on Control, from Mikey Ferbrache of Apocalypse Studios along with Ollie from the band, took a couple of listens to get my head around but, despite being layered and tweaked and with extra instruments thrown into the mix it manages to balance an aspect of the band’s live sound with the feel of some nice studio additions.

These include extra guitar parts from local luminaries such as Colin Leach of The Risk, Coastal Fire Dept founder member Bobby Battle (who has since rejoined the band on a more permanent basis) and former Lord Vapour axeman Henry Fears who also played live with the band through the middle part of 2019 as well as a whole range of other noises including, apparently, an aerosol deodorant can.

This all makes for a fine slice of alt rock that harks back to its inspirations while still feeling fresh and it really deserves, and needs, to be played loud.